Robert W. van der Valk

ir Robert (Rob) W. van der Valk studied Engeneering the Firm at Eindhoven Technical University and has complementary degrees in Public Administration from The University of Tilburg, The Netherlands. He specialised at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in Organisation Development, notably the theory and practice of processconsulting and development of individuals and groups. Was a student of Chris Argyris and Suresh Srivastva. Has followed several educational trajects in approaches and techniques of personal development/therapy. Studied French language and civilisation at Sorbonne University, Paris, France. Internationally certified managementconsultant.

After seven years of consulting the dutch cabinet on the organisation of central government in The Netherlands, he became at the age of 33 ass. director of Personel and HRM of the Ministry of Finance. Three years later he started his carreer as an independant managementconsultant. Workfields: change of organisationstructure and culture, redesigning workprocesses, MD-training, teamtraining, OD, implementing the management of project- and programs, performancemanagement and planning systems. He worked mostly for organisations in the public domain and also for multinationals such as Shell. Adviced the Latvian Ministry of Reform and the Ministry for Development and Planning of Dominica. More and more he was asked by clients to manage their complex projects, either within their organisations or within alliancies/networks of organisations. He did for several consequetive years hold the position of ceo of an organisation, as for example that of The Foundation for Public Communication of Science and Technology.

Rob has an experience of 25 years with training managers to become more behaviorally skilled and with in-company Management Development trajects.

In his many years as a manager he has acquired knowledge of practical protocols and systems in fields such as programming, planning, (financial) control, HRM. He has experienced how managementresponsability feels, how it it is to be confronted with personal ineffectivity and being challenged to change oneself into a more effective influencer and how difficult it is to willingly act upon the decision to transcend the stage of being able to survive management and arrive at the stage of growth in management.

In Rob's view an effective manager at mid to higher leves of an organisation must always have the ability to asses if primary and secundary workprocesses are set up properly. Behavioral influencingskills for coping with a wide variety of generally predictable managementsituations are extremely important but are far from the only competence a manager needs.